The start of
tunnelling on the NZ Transport Agency’s (NZTA) landmark
Waterview Connection project in Auckland has moved a
significant step closer with the NZTA’s Well-Connected
Alliance formally accepting the huge machine it will use to
construct the twin 2.5km-long tunnels.

The
state-of-the-art Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) is the 10th
largest machine of its kind ever to be built worldwide and
has been designed specifically for the unique ground
conditions on the $1.4b Waterview Connection - the biggest
transport construction project in New Zealand’s history
and the key to unlocking the full benefits of Auckland’s
motorway network.

The handover – marked by an official
signing at Guangzhou in south east China where the German
manufacturer of the TBM, Herrenknecht, has a factory –
follows 14 months of design, build and testing of the giant
machine.

The TBM’s circular cutting head, painted
black with a silver fern logo, is more than 14 metres wide
– the equivalent of a building three storeys high – and
the machine is almost 100 metres long – the length of a
rugby field. The machine will now be dismantled for
shipment to New Zealand and is due to arrive in Auckland in
July before being reassembled at the project’s southern
tunnel portal to begin tunnelling in October.

The
Waterview Connection is part of the Western Ring Route road
of national significance and will join SH20 (Southwestern
Motorway) and SH16 (Northwestern Motorway) to complete a 47
kilometre-long motorway alternative to SH1 and the Auckland
Harbour Bridge.

“The size of this
project and the size of the tunnel boring machine are both
on a scale the likes of which we have never seen before in
New Zealand,” says the NZTA’s State Highways Manager for
Auckland and Northland, Tommy Parker.

“Since mid-2012
we have preparing a trench that will not only form the
southern tunnel approach, but provide the TBM’s launch
pad,” Mr Parker adds. “This requires us to excavate to
a depth of 30 metres, initially, drilling and blasting
through a 15m-thick layer of very hard volcanic rock.”

To construct two 2.5km-long tunnels, each wide enough for
three lanes of traffic, the TBM will pass beneath the rock
and tunnel through softer, clay-like soil known as the East
Coast Bay Formation. It is expected to take a year to
complete the first tunnel, emerging beyond Great North Road
in Waterview, where work is already underway to prepare for
its arrival and turnaround for the return journey. Mr
Parker says that when completed in 2017, the project will
help unlock Auckland’s potential for economic growth and
will also have considerable benefits for its Northland and
Waikato/Bay of Plenty neighbours.

“Easing pressure on
the city’s existing motorway network will have flow-on
effects that will encourage business growth, tourism and
jobs. For the first time there will be a direct motorway
link between Auckland International Airport and the CBD.
The network will become more resilient – two motorway
links through Auckland reduce the risk of any disruption to
traffic bringing the city to a standstill.”

The
Waterview Connection, Mr Parker adds, aims to deliver
maximum regional and national benefits with a minimum
long-term impact on the communities surrounding the project.

“Tunnelling obviously allows us to do this, and a
strong focus on urban design and landscaping – like the
rehabilitation work we’ve already carried out around
Oakley Creek – ensures that the effects of all above
ground work are carefully mitigated.”

TBM quick
facts • At 14.5m, the TBM’s shield or head
diameter is the 10th largest ever built. Its total length
is 97m.• The 12 metre-long shield will arrive in NZ in
8 pieces, collectively weighing 2300 tonnes• The TBM
will have a top speed of 80mm a minute, or 0.0005km/h
• Approximately 800,000 cubic metres of earth will be
removed from both tunnels – enough to full 320
Olympic-sized swimming pools
Attached images
• The Tunnel Boring
Machine with its distinctive silver fern at Herrenknecht’s
factory at Guangzhou in south east China

• Graham
Darlow, Chairman of the Board of the Well-Connected
Alliance, the NZTA’s specialist design, construct and
maintenance consortium delivering the Waterview Connection
project, puts pen to paper on the $50M TBM contract at the
official acceptance ceremony in Guangzhou,
China

• Graham Darlow, Chairman of the Board of the
Well-Connected Alliance, the NZTA’s specialist design,
construct and maintenance consortium delivering the
Waterview Connection project, addresses the audience in
front of the TBM at the official acceptance ceremony in
Guangzhou, China

For more information visit: www.nzta.govt.nz/waterviewconnection.
Latest news and videos are also available via
Well-Connected’s Twitter and Youtube channels www.twitter.com/wcnow and www.youtube.com/wcnow.NOTESRoads
of National SignificanceAs part of the Western
Ring Route, the Waterview Connection is crucial to
supporting growth in Auckland and improving transport links
between the city and the economic centres of Northland and
Waikato/Bay of Plenty.

The Western Ring Route –
Waterview and the adjacent project to raise and widen the
SH16 causeway - is part of the NZTA’s roads of national
significance programme (RoNS for short), which represents
one of New Zealand’s biggest-ever infrastructure
investments. Once completed, the seven RoNS routes will
reduce congestion in and around our five largest
metropolitan areas, and will move people and freight between
and within these centres more safely and
efficiently.Other RoNS are: Ara Tuhono – Puhoi to
Wellsford north of Auckland, Auckland’s Victoria Park
Tunnel (completed in 2012), Waikato Expressway, Tauranga
Eastern Link, Wellington Northern Corridor, and Christchurch
Motorways. More information is available at www.nzta.govt.nz/rons.

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